Ten-Year-Old Facebook Shows No Signs of Exodus

In 2013, reports about a teen exodus of Facebook users made global headlines. From reports of millions of lost teen users in 3 years, to a Princeton study that claimed that Facebook would lose up to 80% of its users by no later than 2017, Facebook's dominance has been called to question.

Is Facebook in deep trouble? Should we all flee the network before we're all alone in there?

Nope.

Not so fast.

While Facebook is seeing competition from every angle and its relevance could be threatened in years to come, Facebook is doing much better than those headlines imply. In fact, Facebook's growth is so amazing that the drop in teens in certain countries is, well, statistically irrelevant.

As Facebook ensures its global relevance amongst users and future users of all ages, there is one key metric that the company continues to focus on and continues to remind us about, and for good reason.

With over 1.2+ billion Monthly Active Users, the social network continues to grow each and every quarter.

Is Facebook's engine of growth eternally sustainable? No. That would be impossible. But 1.2+ billion people actively using Facebook every month is a sign of the company's place on the web and in our hearts + minds.

This chart shows Facebook's MAU growth from the second quarter of 2010 to the end of 2013:

Happy 10th Birthday Facebook. It will be interesting to see "you" become a "teen" in the next few years.